Amsterdam hits ‘illegal’ Airbnb landlord with €300,000 fine

Amsterdam city council has imposed a record fine of €297,000 on a landlord and agency that breached its strict rules on letting rooms via Airbnb.

Iamb&b rented out 11 flat in the Kerkstraat to tourists in what alderman Laurens Ivens, responsible for housing, called the ‘prototype for an illegal hotel’. Both the owner of the properties and the agency have been ordered to pay €13,500 per apartment.

Under Amsterdam’s local rules, homeowners can rent out rooms via sites such as Airbnb for a maximum of 60 days a year and to no more than four people at a time. Only the owner of the property is allowed to rent it out.

A digital investigation established that the Kerkstraat apartments were listed for far longer than the permitted period.

Ivens said the large fine was intended as a warning to other agencies that often act as a front desk for the illegal hotel trade.

‘If they know that homes are being let out too often, or more than four tourists are occupying them, then they share responsibility,’ he said.

The owner of Iamb&b, Dirk Minnebo, intends to contest the fine, Het Parool reported.